Shahid King Bolsen on his view of where Europe is headed.

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Okay, let's catch up on what's been going on in Europe lately. First of all, as I thought and as I said earlier, Russia stopping shipments through the Nord Stream pipeline, which they said was for technical reasons, was not for technical reasons. Now they've come out and said, basically, we're not going to resume exports to the EU unless or until sanctions against Russia are lifted. So that's about two months earlier than expected, since it was going to stop either way once the European price caps took effect. Now, in other headlines, the second largest steel producer in the world has shut down a major factory in Europe due to high energy costs. Germany's largest producer of toilet paper has gone insolvent. Europe's largest aluminum smelter has reduced production by 22% due to high energy costs. Conservative estimates are that roughly 10% of of all German manufacturing will shut down over the next six months. Personally, I don't see how the Scholz government can stay in office until the end of its term. Even if we're talking about the closure of 10% of German manufacturing. That's catastrophic not only for the German economy, but across Europe. Now, it's not making the headlines, but I know from people in Europe that small businesses are shutting bakeries, restaurants and so on because they're seeing their energy prices, that they have to pay their bills increasing from around €4,000amonth to €10,000amonth. That's not sustainable for any business. Most small businesses operate on a very tight profit margin. And if you're going to double or even triple their expenses on a monthly basis, they have to shut down overnight because you can't financially survive, particularly when everybody is suffering and people just don't even have the money to buy your goods in the first place. And all of your goods are costing more expensive to produce whatever it is that you produce and sell. The ripple effect of all of this is going to build into a tsunami of bankruptcies, loan defaults, unemployment and homelessness, which will then create a tsunami of civil unrest. The EU is proposing mandatory restrictions on energy usage during peak hours. We would propose a mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours. Already in Switzerland, according to the Federal act on National Economic Supply, anyone who violates the energy usage restrictions could be subjected to a fine or even imprisonment. So you could literally go to jail for leaving your lights on too long. Now, that's in Switzerland. But you can expect that these same types of policies are going to spread across Europe. This is kind of like the COVID lockdowns, the iron fisted imposition of neoliberal austerity measures on the population. Europe is being subjugated by corporate imperialism. And the European leaders who are going along with it are just like the elites who collaborated with colonialists and colonizers and imperialists back in the heyday of imperialism. Now these ones are justifying it in the name of supporting Ukraine or preventing climate change or what have you. But those two issues have nothing to do whatsoever with what's going on. This is a corporate power grab, land grab and cash grab, pure and simple. The demographic decline in the west has always meant that perpetual economic growth was unsustainable. But the populations in the west have gotten used to a high standard of living and now they're going to have to start to get used to third World standards of living, Third World conditions, because corporations still demand perpetual profit growth. So everyone's economic, health, financial health, financial well being standard of living, all of that has to be sacrificed to feed the appetite of corporations. Now I'm talking about this in doing these updates about the deterioration of Europe, not only to convey to Muslims that Western centric power is declining because that doesn't mean what most people think it means, but primarily I'm trying to convey to Muslims that we are talking about a civilization that completely failed to civilize. They do not believe in or apply the moral values and principles that they espouse and they never have. They never evolved from past feudalism and savagery. They are as they have always been. The ascension of the west has been a technologically enabled anomaly of history. And the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the west is inevitably dismantling their societies. There's nothing here that should inspire our awe or admiration or respect. I feel sympathy with the average regular people in the West. They have been betrayed by their leaders. They are the victims of a civilization that failed completely to civilize them and to inculcate and nurture and cultivate in them genuine moral values. And they are being fed into the meat grinder of neoliberal capitalism. It's not fair what's happening to them, but it is what it is. These have been failed societies for a very long time. What's happening now is that we're just seeing the material manifestations of that failure as the collective power and importance of the west deteriorates. So should Muslims in Europe leave? Should they make hijra? Well, everyone has to make that decision for themselves. That's a personal matter. But you have to know that the situation is going to get very hard and it will be very dangerous for Muslims. We are a ready made scapegoat community. But you should also know that over the next several years, the conditions in Europe will probably be the best conditions for making dawah that we've ever seen in Europe. So everybody has to decide for themselves and what's best for themselves and their families. Muslim civilization has remained intact with or without the khilafah, with or without economic or military power, and under the burden of Western colonialism and domination, the Muslim civilization has remained intact throughout. So the collapse of Western civilization in in Europe certainly will open the door for greater influence for Islam and Muslims on the continent. But it is going to be a very turbulent time, and Muslims should do everything they can to be prepared for it. Jazakumullahu khairan Wa salamu alaikum.